Taormina Hop-On Hop-Off: open-top bus to Etna views and Isola Bella

Nie wieder. Die Fahrer halten sich weder an Zeiten noch an Haltestellen. Man sieht die Busse vorbeifahren, aber sie halten nicht. Auf Nachfrage heißt es, kein Platz an der Haltestelle, hat angeblich 100m weiter angehalten. War für uns leider nicht zu sehen, da hinter einer Kurve. Was wir allerdings sehen konnten, dass genug Platz vorhanden war. Hieß für uns also noch eine Stunde warten. Der nächste Bus hielt dann an, der musste aber direkt eine Pause machen. Nochmal 50 Minuten warten bis es weitergeht. Im Endeffekt mussten wir mehrere geplante Stationen auslassen, da die Zeit nicht mehr gereicht hat. Der Guide hat uns noch empfohlen, den regulären Bus zu nehmen, um zur nächsten Station zu kommen. Wieder Geld ausgeben, obwohl diese überteuerte Tour schon bezahlt wurde.

The pick up point was stressful, we waited at designated bus stop with plenty of time before pick up time. At least 25 minutes. No one showed to greet us. Around 9.03 a bus pulled up other side of the road, driver disappeared for 10 minutes so i just waited at the bus doors till he finished his phone conversation, coffee and smoke and said hello and showed him tickets. He seemed annoyed he had a pick up. Grumbled something about no drinks being allowed on the bus. My son downed his drink put it in bin and we left. This was a 9.10 pick up in giardini naxos and it was already 30 degrees how can drinks not be allowed? even if its limited to water? The full round trip without getting off the bus just taking in the views was 2hours 15 minutes! After the fiasco of the pick up we decided just to stay on incase we were left stranded. The driver navigated the roads like a pro! Lewis Hamilton would have been proud! So hold on to your hats because the views are spectacular.

Grundsätzlich gut. Nur die Haltestelle zur Abholung am Morgen war falsch. Als ein Bus an mir vorbei gefahren ist, obwohl ich Pünktlich da war, habe ich angerufen. Die Dame am Telefon teilte mir Anfangs schroff mit das Dort keine Haltestelle sei. Als ich jedoch darauf beharrte da ich ja eine E-Mail erhalten hatte, war sie freundlicher und bat mich kurz zu warten. Es käme noch ein Bus, dieser halte extra für mich an einer inoffiziellen Haltestelle. Danach hat es geklappt und die Dame am Steuer war sehr kompetent und hatte die Hindernisse auf der s Strecke sehr gut im Griff.

I usually have good luck with GYG - but this was just a disaster. We were on a cruise, with very limited time in port - and we wanted to travel from Guardini Naxos to visit Taormina and perhaps Castelmola. Other than a private tour, our best option appeared to be the Hop-on/Hop-off bus. We arrived at the bus stop by the port on time, but the bus was more than 20 minutes late. We traveled up to Taormina and decided to take the quick trip up to Castelmola - but when we got there, we learned that HALF of the buses were NOT RUNNING that day (something we didn't know because our driver spoke NO English). So we had to come straight back down, wasting 45 minutes. We then verified the time for the last bus that would get us back to port on time, and went and visited Taormina. But when we returned to the stop, we were told that the bus was way late and now we wouldn't get back to our ship in time! So we had to spend the money to take a taxi back to avoid missing our ship. Total waste.

Good transport and ideal to get around economically. Fitful working audio commentary with very little detail on what we could see or much hoped for historic background and context. Bus arrival times, although generally OK, were sometimes unreliable. We were stuck at Letojanni for 2.5hrs after (we believe) our hour return bus did not arrive. Telephone contact to our organiser worked efficiently but we had to wait 2 hrs for the next bus. There appears to be no driver communication on who has been dropped off or picked up.